Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Bimbo Deluxe

What can you get for 4 dollars? A bottle of soft drink? Check. A Cornetto? Check. A whole prosciutto pizza? Che- Wait what?

Located in the painfully hip suburb of Fitzroy, Bimbo Deluxe offers hungry punters dinner-plate sized gourmet pizzas for just a handful of loose change. Show up for a weekday lunch or on select hours during the weekend (full details on their website), and you’ll be rewarded with the amazing deal of 4 dollars for any pizza. And yes, that does include the ones with prosciutto or smoked salmon, not just your basic margarita.

Walking in at 1pm on a Tuesday, the lounge section (full of squishy mismatched couches that are perfect for canoodling) was dark and empty, but both the dining area and the rooftop garden were filled with customers – students and pensioners, parents and toddlers, office workers and indie kids – getting their pizza fix. The service was a little ‘too cool for school’ but it’s just part of the vibe, so lie back and soak it up.

The pizzas have been ordered at the bar, and the cutlery and the water have been grabbed, so we sat down to wait. A quick circuit around the room and up and down the stairs discovered a charmingly old-fashioned room, toilet cubicles pasted with an amusing variety of posters, and some eerie dolls chained to the ceiling.

After a 15 minute wait, our pizzas arrived piping hot from the oven. First impressions were fantastic – the ingredients looked fresh and varied, and the pizza base was reassuringly irregular. This Salsiccia Festa (sausage, caramelised red onion, red peppers, rosemary, oregano, tomato and mozzarella) tasted as good as it looked. The scattering of ingredients meant that each bite tasted different, and although the topping was minimal, it was a celebration of quality over quantity, and never felt mean.

Taleggio (tomato, taleggio cheese, potato, rosemary oil)

I clearly didn’t think this through, and decided that carb-on-carb would make for a fantastic lunch. Hence I ordered the Taleggio (tomato, taleggio cheese, potato, rosemary oil). The liberal dousing of rosemary oil and dried rosemary went perfectly with the soft potato slices, and the creamy tang of the taleggio added some bite to the orgy of carbohydrates. But the base, being crispy and thin, kept the pizza just below the ‘too heavy’ line, so I wasn’t left feeling sluggish and drowsy by the end. Looks like it wasn’t such a bad choice after all!

Chocolate Pizza (dark Belgian chocolate, mascarpone)

We were so very full after the last two pizzas, so of course we ordered another pizza. The chocolate pizza (dark Belgian chocolate, mascarpone) was much, much smaller than the savoury pizzas, clocking in at about the size of an adult’s palm. And unlike the savoury pizzas, the first impressions weren’t nearly as good. Where’s the chocolate? Why is there butter on top? This is going to give me a heart attack, isn’t it?

mmm innards

But as soon as we sunk our knives in, more blood chocolate than we thought possible oozed out. Dark, rich and slightly bitter, it was sinfully perfect with the crispy chewy base. I think I’ll go and repent now.

loving the serrated knives, as opposed to the kind you normally get that can't even cut through butter, let alone pizza

Did we manage to finish it? Naturally. And whilst I didn’t pick the plate up and lick it myself, Chris did, sigh. You win some you lose some I suppose.

We stumbled out into the warm sunshine an hour later, filled to the brim with quality nosh. Who says being a foodie meant you couldn’t have a good meal for 12 dollars?